Here’s What It’s Like Having $100 Billion vs. $1 Billion | Robert Reich

There are 7 “centibillionaires” in the U.S. worth $100 billion or more. Let me put their wealth in perspective:

If you’re a regular billionaire, you can afford a private jet. If you’re a centibillionaire, you can afford a brand new Gulfstream jet…every single day…for more than 10 years.

Taxing such obscene wealth should be a no-brainer. What do you think?

[Zurround]

Years ago I was looking at a political cartoon depicting "trickle down" economics and it was a picture of a very wealthy man standing on a raised platform with his pants down urinating on a bunch of very unhappy looking poor people below him. I have always thought that was what "trickle down" economics REALLY MEANT.

[shouldersofgiantsinvestor]

U.S. GDP growth was much higher in the 1950s and 1960s when taxes on the rich (the top marginal rate) approached 90%.

[GladysAlicea]

Professor Reich, I've been a subscriber since the start and this, by far, is the only video that made me smile (a little). America's first millionaires invested in art and culture. Guess we needed that, as a new nation, but these guys are just braggarts. Thank you, sir.

[alicemuller]

The truth is more important than the facts.. I’m exigent on productive information on how to possibly create wealth with my $250K good enough to retire. What’s your say on this approach?

[falsificationism]

Isn't it amazing that not a SINGLE Centibillionaire has ever tried doing any of these things like paying off all medical debt. Not even once.

Instead they start foundations and use them as tax write-offs.

[kevinviel]

centi means hundredth, i.e. $10, 000, 000 (centimeter = 0.01 meter). The prefix desired is hecto, h, hundred. hB = 10^9 * 10^2 = 10^11, $100, 000, 000, 000

[markpashia]

Ah but the real question is HOW MANY GOVERNMENTS CAN A CENTIBILLIONAIRE BUY??? We know they have completely bought the US House and Senate plus many state governments!!! Could a Centibillionaire buy a continent???

[homerthompson]

A good way to look a how much even $1 billion is: If you made $5000 a day with paid vacation that would be an enormous amount of money to live off for the year. If you worked that job for that pay since the day Columbus landed in the Americas you still wouldn't be a billionaire.

[johnnydidonna]

The UN calculates the price tag for world hunger at $32 billion. A few of these guys pulled that in in a single week during the pandemic.

[chriscarbaugh]

Solve healthcare and home the homeless… powerful.

[honestabe]

GREED. That most human trait. Wasn't there this carpenter guy talking about that around 2, 000 years ago?

[Zonker]

If time was money... a second would be a dollar... so, a million dollars would be 11 days... a billion dollars would be 31 years... a trillion dollars would be over 30, 000 years. The oldest known pottery is 20-30 thousand years old. It can be tough to wrap your head around. Bit like imaging three dinensional space. My point is that you probably have no concept of someone worth 250 billion dollars... it ain't your fault... it's just a ridiculous amount.

[billmoss]

I was raised not to be envious of others' smarts, good fortune or whatever. But that was a long time ago before stupid me got on to the reality that money talks even though that talk is mostly BS. Things need to change. No redistribution just pay your fair share. What's a fair share? Let the people that drive the economy-you and me- decide we've had enough. No loopholes!

[myfriendgoo]

The U.S. undeniably has the most billionaires, but that hasn't helped the middle and bottom like it's supposed to. At those levels the U.S. routinely gets beaten by other developed countries on human development, living standards, life expectancy, health care, vacation time and a long list of other things. Benefits have not trickled down. Too many have just worked too hard at great sacrifice to family life and not been rewarded. No wonder the political party that enables it most is always trying to get peoples' attention on other things.

[raymondschwartz]

You are a genius of this issue and deserve a full time on all radios, TV, and any other medium that has ability to get to all persons!

[tomconverse]

Greed transforms what was once a human being into a soulless creature. Paying their fair share of taxes like the rest of us is the LEAST they can do!

[climateteacherjohnj]

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." _Albert A. Bartlett. They think that going from a million to a billion to a trillion is like adding zeroes so, it's like adding nothing. It goes like this, counting at a second per number: Counting to a hundred takes just under two minutes. Counting to a thousand takes two hours and forty minutes. Counting to a billion would take 33 years, 8 months, and life-ending sleep deprivation. Now, you do the math on counting to a hundred billion and then a trillion because I'm already tired just thinking about it!

[emjay]

Need to go after the system AND all those enabling it ! Ridiculous

[danabe]

If you invested in Tesla or amazon you've done quite well. Lets not forget that millions of small time investors are benefiting from the success of these centibillionaires as well.

[awalker]

This is what happens when wealth is being hoarded.